Sixlets
by Joryuu12
Summary: Six ficlets per chapter. Includes all characters. Friendship, angst, adventure, family...it will span pretty much everything.
1. Chapter 1

CONSPICUOUS

They were back. They didn't sit together. The boys sat in one booth. The girls sat at another on the opposite side of the room. I didn't watch them too closely as I dropped frozen fries into vats of oil and slapped stale burgers into paper bags. I didn't have to. I'd been watching them for a while.

They laughed together. They chased the boy who frequently stole the leftovers of others. They leaned close to whisper gossips. They smiled and nudged each other with jokes on their lips. But that was only on the surface.

While they joked, the boys' eyes met the girls' from across the room with knowing glances. Watchful gazes scoured the room for something that never seemed to appear. They ordered food that they pretended to eat. Their laughter hid strain in their voices and tightness around their eyes and muscles tensing at the wrong moments; trying too hard. Their nudges were full of intent and not as casual as they would have it seem.

There was something different about those kids in comparison to the others that filed in day after day for a salt-filled after school snack.

I couldn't place what it was, but it didn't matter. My job wasn't to watch for the oddities of human teenagers. My job was to serve the artificial nourishment that this weak species enjoyed and to open the hidden door of for my fellow Yeerks, those that ordered a happy meal with extra happy.

* * *

LIFE IN 3D

Jake's ninja leapt a distance that no non-digital human would ever manage and sent Marco's ninja down with a well placed kick.

Marco grunted mildly. Jake stayed silent. Both faces remained expressionless. Their fingers flashed across their video game controllers, their eyes stared at the television where the images danced, but they showed no enthusiasm.

Several minutes later, a hundred shouted 'Ki-ya!' from tiny digital ninjas, too much time annoyed by electronic tunes and beeps, Marco tossed his controller to the floor.

"Didn't this used to be fun?"

Jake sighed and tossed his down as well. Both ninjas came to a standstill. "Yeah. In the old days."

"You mean...last year?" Sarcasm dripped from Marco's words. As usual.

Jake just shrugged.

"Yeah," Marco agreed.

A year ago their own whoops and groans and laughs and mutual insults would have joined the Ki-ya of of every mighty ninja leap.

Not anymore, though.

Video games, it seemed, had joined the list of BY and AY – Before Yeerk and After Yeerk.

How could jumping and leaping and death defying stunts be exciting on the other end of a cable when they did it for real every week?

How could they enjoy the latest horror flick when the fake blood and guts and missing limbs reminded them all too clearly of the real gore they saw far too often?

Don't even bring up alien invasion movies.

Roller coasters? Forget it. He'd fallen to his near-death on more than one occasion.

The zoo? Yeah right.

Camping? And do what...worry the entire time what nefarious plot was being born without him there to lead the Animorphs into battle against it?

Forget finding something exciting to do.

The only thing Jake wanted in his life was boredom.

* * *

DUAL END

His body but not his body lunged forward over and over to pump venom into his cousin. Rachel, always larger than life, her spirit bigger than the body of bear she currently used.

It was the end. Tom knew. The Yeerk in his head knew, too. Just before Rachel reach down to crunch his writing body with her killer teeth, Tom freed himself for half a moment in the Yeerk's panic and met the pain-filled, raged and determined eyes of his cousin before he lost control for the last time.

 _I will kill you!_ His Yeerk screamed at her.

 _Kill me_ , Tom begged of her.

He thinks Rachel knew that moment was him, that the eyes that met hers were the eyes of her cousin. That she was listening to his voice.

 _Save me, Jake!_ the Yeerk begged of Tom's brother.

 _Don't_ , Tom demanded silently.

They both granted him his last wish.

 _They heard me_ , Tom gloated gleefully to the Yeerk as the life drained from them far more quickly than Tom knew could happen. _They finally heard me_.

* * *

MAN OF WAR

Jake watched the ceremony impassively. He listened as his cousin recited in Hebrew, but Jake didn't know the words. His parents had never been observant, but obligation brought them to his cousin's Bar Mitvahs.

His cousin, thirteen years old, was becoming a man.

A few years ago Jake would have scoffed at the idea that one day, one happening, could transform a child into an adult.

A few years ago, Jake knew nothing.

Now. Now he knew that things could be seen and done and thought that could turn a child into an adult. It could take months or it could take mere moments, but there was always that one pivotal moment when perception shifted. Nothing changed outwardly, but inside...that was where it happened.

Jake knew this all too well.

Jake wasn't sure if he knew, yet, what it was to be a man.

But he wondered if there was a ceremony somewhere that celebrated a child becoming a general.

* * *

MOTHER'S DAY

Naomi ate the breakfast her daughters made for her, and she smiled.

The card they gave her was beautiful, and she smiled.

She went to the spa day Sara and Jordon had arranged for her, and she smiled.

She watched her little grandson in the park, and Naomi laughed.

They talked about holidays past, and they laughed.

As always, at the end of the day, Naomi visited Rachel. Her fingers trailed the memorial headstone, cold marble, beginning to show signs of age, with meaningless inscriptions of bravery and sacrifice. And Naomi cried.

She tried. She really did. She returned her son's hugs and thanked him for his gift. She accepted, with cotton in her throat, his offer of a lunch date.

She nodded and smiled and laughed as they talked, but she could see it. She could see that Jake knew. She felt it in his tense shoulders when they hugged. She saw it in the way he never met her eyes. She saw it in the way his smile faltered when he thought she wasn't looking.

They both felt it. She loved Jake with all of her heart, but his guilt was not undeserved.

It was not easy to celebrate Mother's Day with the one who had taken one of her sons away.

* * *

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Cassie still loved animals but she looked at them differently now.

She'd grown up knowing them. She'd learned to respect them but also how to handle them confidently. Cassie had been taught the reality of the animal world.

Cassie hadn't wanted a ribboned pony like all the other little girls. Instead, Cassie read about their herd habits and what was best to feed them and how to bind an inflamed hoof without being kicked in the head.

She didn't want a pretty Collie to run the fields with. Instead, she put on sensible overalls and dirty boots and trekked into the woods to help her father collect the wounded wolves and coyotes.

Cassie had never wanted a colorful parrot to cage in her bedroom and call a pet. Instead, she donned protective gloves and a soothing voice and released the hawks and falcons and cranes back into the skies from which they'd fallen.

That was Cassie's love for animals.

But now she knew them better in a way that no studying or training could every truly provide.

Cassie knew that the wolf was elated when when it crunched bones between it's teeth, and how natural it felt to do so. She knew the playful priority of the dolphin and the blood lust of every predator. She knew the lack of self that the termite lived it's entire life and she knew the overwhelming hunger of the mosquito and the flea. She fought to forget the emotionless, prehistoric mind for killing that belonged to the shark. She had nightmares of the ant colony and wonderful dreams of flying high.

There was respect to be gained from all living creatures if only people could listen. Cassie hadn't had a choice, so maybe she was no better than those she judged, but now she knew.

She would have changed some things, if asked...like being forced to fight a war as a young girl. But given the opportunity, she would have not passed up the chance to do most of it all over again.

Knowledge is power, and you can't change the world without either.


	2. Chapter 2

**Lonely**

Ax stared up at the stars and wondered just how far away he was from home. Contrary to the beliefs of his friends, he didn't really know everything. He knew a lot. But not everything. What he did know was that, as the one and only Andalite on the planet, fighting for the freedom of an alien species, Ax knew that no one could ever imagine how lonely he was.

* * *

Tobias flew high above, so far up that even his keen eyes barely spotted his Andalite friend in the grass far below. He shouldn't be flying so late. His eyes weren't meant for the dark. His wings weren't meant for the cold breezes. But Tobias had always liked the night, before. The night had offered shadows and solitude.

That was only one part of his brain that fought his new existence. He was the only creature on Earth with the mind of a teenager and the body of a bird. Even while he enjoyed loosening his tether to gravity, he wondered if a lonelier prison ever existed.

* * *

Cassie couldn't sleep. She was disturbed. She was always disturbed, lately.

She'd always known right from wrong. It had always been a very clear line. All black and white, no gray area. THIS was the line and one side was right and one side was wrong.

Now she wasn't so sure. Who drew the line? Who made the rules? Were the rule breakers the good guys or the bad guys? Was it okay to do bad things if you were doing them for good?

Cassie was far too young to have to find solutions to such problems. She wasn't too proud to admit that.

If she had only herself to worry about maybe she could find the answer. But she didn't. She had her friends to worry about.

She had been surprised, not pleasantly so. It seemed they pushed the line back further and further the longer the war continued. Despite her objections, she always followed. Sometimes she led.

She wasn't sure if she had expected everyone to firmly remain on the right side of the line...wherever that was...but if so, she had been sorely disappointed. Instead, they often fell where they may, like die cast by an imperial hand, rolling hither and yon until they spun to a stop.

Cassie had never expected to be the only voice of reason and ethics.

Cassie had never expected that voice to whisper confusions at her.

Cassie had never expected that voice to grow fainter and fainter.

Cassie buried her face in her pillow, anguished. It was so lonely, being the sole voice of morality.

It was lonelier still without that voice at all.

* * *

Rachel stood outside the bedroom door, pillow in hand.

She was crazy.

Her mom snored softly on the other side. The sheets rustled every now and then. How long had she been standing in the dark and cold hallway, staring at the closed door?

Too long.

How long had it been since she'd last drug her pillow to her parent's bedroom? Far, far too long.

Rachel had fears. Not unexpected, right? They slashed and cut almost weekly. They bit and tore and dodged weapon-fire. The faced creatures from the worst nightmares, nightmares living outside of the dreams.

The thing Rachel was most afraid of, though, was herself.

She woke herself up; not with screams of terror but with howls of rage and glorious spikes of adrenaline. She woke with memories of full abandon. She woke with the new knowledge that saving the world had become the second-most reason she fought.

The first reason was that she had to. She had to satisfy something that was becoming addictive and so, so satisfying.

Rachel hadn't climbed into her parents' bed since she was a small girl. She wanted to now. She wanted to curl up with her mom. She wanted to listen to her snores and feel her breath ruffle her hair and let her head ride her mom's chest in a soothing lullaby.

But she was Xena: Warrior Princess now. Warriors didn't sleep in their mom's bed.

Rachel returned to her room and crawled back under her own blankets.

She was freezing but no amount of blankets would warm her. The cold started within.

Rachel cried in the only way she ever cried.

Alone.

* * *

They were the only thing standing between Visser Three and total domination of their planet. Of their entire species.

It wasn't a very formidable stand.

The name Custer often came to mind.

How was he supposed to do Algebra homework knowing that? He didn't have to get an A on his next test to know the solution to that formula.

Indefinite number of yeerks times advanced technology plus secret invasion divided by five teenagers and an adolescent Andalite.

Jake didn't like the probable outcome of that equation at all.

There were some unknown variables.

There were, presumably, a force of Andalites on the way.

The Chee offered what passive assistance they could.

But assistance and resistance were two different things and to all knowledge there was only one resistance in existence.

One resistance in the entire universe.

They were truly alone.

* * *

Marco was funny. He'd be the first to admit it.

Laughter eased fears. Humor made things lighter. A smile was worth a hundred frowns.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

He had a million of them.

Is Rachel getting too wild? Always a good time for a Xena joke.

Jake forgetting he was still in high school and not wearing a chest full of general stars? A well placed but lightly tipped barb brought him back to Earth.

Tobias locked in a depressed funk? Easy. Bird Boy was easily amused with road kill jokes.

Is His dad staring too long with eyes too moist at a picture of his lost wife? A sit-com with Marco's special brand of commentary was just the thing to fix it.

Ax? Anything about him. Child's play. Ax was always good for a joke to lighten the mood.

Thrown across the room by a Hork-Bajir? He had a quip for that.

Planning yet another suicide mission? Please. He'd never run out of those.

It took him a long time to realize they were laughing for him instead of at him.

It took him longer to realize that, really, he was the only one laughing.

So who were the jokes really for?


End file.
